User blog:Brady26/The Cauldron
In Arroad, there is a city, as splendid and grand as any of the cities of the human realm of the the Noble States. It is a city of many people, a mix of races and folk, most are kind souls that hold no malice towards those that would seek safety behind their greatest defence, the Black Iron Walls. Surrounding the city are walls that rise twenty feet into the air, made of one solid piece of iron, its surface scorched black by the years and the the many attempted raids on the city. All have them have failed. Except for one. Sometime in the mid eighth century LN, the Cauldron came to the notice of a dark power, the necromancer known as the Everseen. A terrible witch that had delved deep into forbidden lore and had devised a scheme to build herself a domain of her own, and she had set her sights on the Cauldron as her first great conquest. To begin, she carved a bloody path through the isolated communities of Arroad, in her perceived benevolence she forced villagers to decide who amongst them would die and serve her. Those that refused or fought back were killed to the last, their bodies rising to serve as soldiers in her grand army. With her shambling horde, the Everseen marched towards the gates of the Cauldron, the city having seen the approaching army of the dead their defences were already locked down. Not only did the city have its valiant defenders and its impenetrable walls, it was also graced with the presence of the Hallowed Bulwark, a paladin order devoted to protecting good people of the world against the darkest horrors, one of which was descending upon the city. The Cauldron stood defiant, its walls a barrier to the dead that they could not overcome, but the Everseen had not come to topple the walls of the city, no she had come to claim it. For days the horde surrounded the city, the defenders believing that the witch planned to starve them out, though with careful rationing enforced by the Hallowed Bulwark who kept the defenders resolve strong, the days turned into a month, the bitter winter winds howling against the defenders, bringing biting icy rain that the unfeeling horde stood in, unflinching. The first defenders to die were the unseen members of society, those that dwelt on the fringes of urban life, the poor, the destitute, the drunks and the orphaned. These were who the Everseen chose to strike at first, casting her dark spells within the safety of her army, the witch called out to those most vulnerable in the Cauldron. Her power drove many mad, their minds being filled with dark and foul magicks, they lashed out at those that were defending them, attacking people at random and seeing the paladins as monsters there to devour them all. While this did not break the defenders, it did spell the beginning of the end. Those on the walls were filled with fear; what if that nightmare was the witch taking over his mind? What if others had already been seized control of? If I tell anyone will they slay me? It was these doubts that doomed the defenders on the wall. As they stood in the rain, staring out at the groaning mass of bodies writhing and shifting in the mud, one by one guardsmen who up until then had been sound in mind, cast themselves from the walls. Not all died as they landed, and as they tried to heave their broken bodies from the rain soaked muck, they were set upon by those that had joined them in their fall. From a distance, the Everseen forced a corruption of life back into the bodies of those guards that had died as they fell, their new orders to throttle those that still lived so that they too may serve the Everseen. The sight horrified those defenders that remained. Many of the people pleaded with their leaders to allow them to flee, let some survive rather than let everyone die. Turning to the Hallowed Bulwark, the paladins themselves being divided on how to proceed. It was not until a young Commander, Azar Stoutmantle, made the decision to assault the horde whilst the town evacuated, but as the dwarf made his bold declaration before the city, the rest of his order took up the call. Mustering the strength of the order, the Hallowed Bulwark charged the horde, carving through the overwhelming numbers to find the dead to find the Everseen. Though it cost them the life of their High Commander, the Hallowed Bulwark were victorious, Azar Stoutmantle himself carving out the witch’s heart and immolating it in holy fire. The Cauldron was a turning point for the paladin order, no longer would they wait for evil to rise, instead they would take the fight to their enemies. From then on the order became the Hallowed Assault. Category:Blog posts